


Choose

by Diaphenia



Category: New Girl
Genre: F/F, Season/Series 03, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Writing on the Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 20:11:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1482394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diaphenia/pseuds/Diaphenia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cece felt a delicate tickle where Jess blew on her skin, then tested with a pinky to see if the ink would smear. Satisfied with her results, she proceeded to write <em>I believe in you!</em> on Cece’s forearm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhatBecomesOfYou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatBecomesOfYou/gifts).



> Set circa 3x11, "Clevado en un Bar"
> 
> With much love to B&C for helping me through this.

“This is just another reason to give up modeling, I guess,” Cece said. She felt a delicate tickle where Jess blew on her skin, then tested with a pinky to see if the ink would smear. Satisfied with her results, she proceeded to write _I believe in you!_ on Cece’s forearm. 

“Yeah! Who wants to be a model when your best friend could write on you instead? Plus, think of all the cookies you’re going to eat,” Jess answered, drawing little hearts around her words. “They’ve really found new ways to incorporate butter. Remember butter?”

“I eat butter,” Cece said, before she remembered she didn’t have to lie about these things anymore. “I mean, I’ve eaten butter.” She vowed to eat some cookies soon. Jess would have to make them for her, since in Cece’s apartment, they used the oven for storage space. She wasn’t even sure if it worked. 

She watched as Jess added some curlicues around the hearts, pausing only to drink beer and switch pen colors. 

“Remember when we were kids, and I used to do this to you all the time?”

She did. When they were kids, pre-modelling contract, they would study together, Jess writing all over Cece like a human flash card, the names of the Lord of the Flies characters or pre-algebra formulas. It was always helpful, as long as she scrubbed them off before school the next morning. Sitting in class, she could trace where the words had been. She swore it helped her recall. 

She’d given all that up to model, naturally. She couldn’t have faint letters on her, or scabs from playing too hard in gym class, or broken nails from rock climbing. She couldn’t even do some of the weird sex things Schmidt had asked her to try, despite his reassurances that nothing would scar. 

She’d given up a lot of things.

“I don’t know, Jess, am I really cut out to be a bartender?”

“Of course you are,” Jess said soothingly. “If Nick can do it, anyone can.” She winced. “I mean. There’s a lot of skill involved, and you did really well tonight.”

“I screwed up a Jack and Coke.”

“Anyone could.”

Cece sighed. 

“Look, I’ll help!” Jess clasped Cece’s hand into hers, leaning over to whisper in her ear. “I know a lot about alcohol.” She smelled like cotton candy, impossibily. 

“Ok,” she said, wishing Jess would whisper bit more. It tickled in only the best ways. 

Jess slid off her bed and knelt right down, pushing up up her skirt a little to write Drafts and Lagers just above Cece’s knees. Cece felt dizzy at the sight; she’d had a dream like this once.

_Leinenkugel_ , Jess wrote on Cece’s right thigh. She gripped the back of her calf, pausing a moment to bite her lip before adding _Blue Moon_ and _Fat Tire_. She looked up suddenly. “And my favorite, 312.” She wrote that too, adding _Jess’s favorite_ next to it. Then she ran her fingers over it once, twice, three times. 

Cece pulled her beer off the nightstand and took a long sip. She felt a little dizzy. Beer would help. 

Jess was a marvelous teacher, as usual. She made Cece repeat the names of all the beers written on her legs, quizzing her occasionally. 

“Name three pale ales,” Jess said. 

“Er— Dos Equis—”

“Nope.”

Cece twisted a little, trying to see the list, which was written somewhere on her left calf. 

Jess sighed dramatically, then climbed on the bed, pressing her chest against Cece’s back as she covered Cece’s eyes with her hands. Cece’s stomach fluttered, but she couldn’t think about it. She managed to answer Jess’s questions, sometimes even correctly. 

“Ok, next up, mixed drinks. You’re going to have to pull up your shirt.”

“My shirt?” She twisted around.

Jess crossed her arms. “Move it or lose it. Please.”

“This feels like so many dates I’ve been on,” Cece said with a shake of her head. 

Which is how she ended up laying on her bed, shirt lifted just enough to bare her stomach, while Jess listed all the liquors that went with orange juice. Cece felt exposed. It’s not as though Jess hasn’t seen her in much less but she’d been so _aware_ around Jess lately. 

Jess danced her hand along Cece’s stomach before slapping the bed. “I just want you to know, I realize those idiots think you’re too old to model. Well, screw them! It’s ridiculous that you’re “too old” when you haven’t even hit your peak. Just, society is gross. Men are gross.”

“Absolutely disgusting. Pigs, all of them.”

“I would literally skin you alive and wear your face if I could, that’s how pretty I think you are.” Jess gazed down at her, lightly petting her cheek. 

“You’ve been drinking.”

“So have you.”

“It’s my _job_ now, can you believe it?” 

Jess traced her words on Cece’s stomach with the tip of her finger. “This is the first time you’ve _chosen_ a job since we were kids, practically.”

Cece considered that. Choosing a job implied things like resumes and job interviews, not her best friend’s boyfriend shrugging. Bartending might be more practical than modeling, but this was like getting scouted all over again. 

Jess’s hand slowed as she traced the top of Cece’s skirt. She leaned back up to her ear, too, and the combination was maddening. “This is totally stupid, but remember when we were in the eighth grade and we used to practice kissing on each other?”

“Mhmm,” Cece said. She absolutely remembered those afternoons on her mother’s patio, kissing in the shade, drinking lemonade. She’d never kissed a boy, but when it was her and Jess she didn’t even want to. 

“I think about that, sometimes, you know? Mostly when Nick talks about the zombie apocalypse. It’s like, it was funny for a while, but sometimes I think he actually believes it.” 

Obviously he did, not that Cece was going to be the one to say it. 

Jess smelled like lager, maybe, or cider. She leaned over Cece, brushing a stray hair from her face, tracing her jaw as she did so. All the while, she snuck glances at Cece through the fringe of her lashes. Cece knew that look Jess was giving her. She’d basically invented that look. 

And Jess was half on top of her, tracing her collarbone, and honestly the weight of someone else on top of her felt good. 

It would be really easy to let this happen, to let Jess kiss her, to avoid another decision. Just like becoming a model or sleeping with Schmidt or getting engaged to Shivrang or letting Jess kiss   
her back in Oregon or dropping out of high school—

“I need to finish high school!” Cece said, sitting straight up, knocking Jess onto her back. 

“Oooph,” Jess said. 

“I’m serious! I should get my GED.” She saw it in her mind’s eye. Cece Parekh, person who thought through her options and made decisions. Cece Parekh, woman who had the equivalent of a high school diploma. 

Maybe she’d even go on a job interview. 

“Oh my god! Cece! That’s a great idea.” Jess looked genuinely happy for her, which was a relief. 

Cece, meanwhile, was ecstatic. “And you’re going to help me study, right?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” Jess offered her a handshake.

Cece, ever impulsive, shook her hand twice, then twisted Jess’s hand behind her back, using her other hand to guide Jess by the back of her neck. Jess’s mouth was warm and pliable, her eyes widening before she shut them with a sigh. Cece sucked her lower lip into her mouth, causing Jess to squeak. 

They pulled back at the same time. Jess’s lip gloss was smeared, and she was breathing a little heavy. 

Cece touched her mouth and smiled. “Don’t forget your pens.”


End file.
